1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer ceramic electronic component having excellent reliability, and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, electronic components formed of a ceramic material, such as a capacitor, an inductor, a piezoelectric element, a varistor, a thermistor, or the like, include a ceramic sintered body formed of a ceramic material, internal electrodes formed within the ceramic sintered body, and external electrodes installed on outer surfaces of the ceramic sintered body so as to be connected to the internal electrodes.
Among ceramic electronic components, a multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) includes a plurality of multilayer dielectric layers, internal electrodes disposed to face each other, having a dielectric layer interposed therebetween, and external electrodes electrically connected to the internal electrodes.
MLCCs have been widely used as components for mobile communications devices such as computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular phones, and the like, due to advantages such as a small size, high capacitance, ease of mounting, and the like.
In accordance with the recent trend for high performance combined with slimness and lightness in electronic devices, affordable small sized, high performance electronic components have been in demand.
Therefore, attempts to thin and laminate dielectric layers and the internal electrodes in large numbers have been conducted through various methods. Recently, as a thickness of dielectric layers has been reduced, multilayer ceramic electronic components having increased numbers of layers have been manufactured.
In addition, the possibility that an electrical short will occur has increased due to a difference in surface roughness levels on an internal electrode printed surface, in accordance with thinness of the internal electrode, which may deteriorate reliability in manufacturing the multilayer ceramic electronic component.
In order to overcome this problem, an attempt to improve surface roughness characteristics of internal electrodes has been undertaken.
Although an attempt to improve surface roughness characteristics of internal electrodes has been described in the related art document, an effect of improving reliability by decreasing occurrence of electrical shorts may not be achieved.